Method of construction.



J. 0.. MEEM.

METHOD 0]? CONSTRUCTION.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 1,1908.

' IMPATBNTBD AUG. 11, 1908.,

UNITED .srATEs PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES c. MEEM, or BROOKLYN, N W YORK, AssIeNoR or ONE-THI D TO FREDERICK L. cRANFoRn AND ONE-THIRD To. WALTER v. CRANFORD, OF BRooKLYN, NEW YORK.

METHOD OF coNs'rRUo'rro'N.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented. Aug, 11, 1908'.

Original application filed. September 6, 1907, Serial No. 391,577; 'Divided and this application filed Apri1 1, 1908. SerialNo. 424,569.

To all whom it may concern: a

Be it known that 1, JAMES C. MEEM, a citizen'of the United States, residing at Brook- 1 in the county of Kings and State of New ark, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Construction, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

v or other structures, or portions of structures,

part1 .15 may. e safely constructed continuously andp the water level, additionalsections will be This invention relates to a method of partially submerged construction, and more y structures such as foundations, tunnels,

; above and partly below the water,

ralpidly, at a low'cost and without injury to a yacent property.

n 'carrymg outth e method of the invention, a preliminary excavation is-made down to the water level and preferably is somewhat larger than the tunnel or foundation to be constructed, Within this excavation, sheeting or piling to form a fixed caisson, is set u and driven to a level belowthe water leve 25 leaving a stationary ortion thereof extending above the water evel. This stationary portion isair proofed and Weighted so as to orm .a caisson where necessary, and-pro,- vided with the usual air locks and other apparatus.

underair pressure where-necessary, to hold back the water, in the usual manner. In going to a greater depth than the sheeting first driven, additional sheeting and bracing are drivenon the forward end in such manner as not to restrict the clear space, so that the interior ofthecaissonhas a certain minimum area and fiS' protected from caving in. This caisson forms one section of the structure to be erected, and from the level as finally,determinjed, whether wholly' or partly below excavated from within the first section while the'latter is being lined, or other structure built therein, each succeeding section havin a roof, and piling driven as described, am being separated by temporary bulkheads from the sections in a more advanced stage;

By this method the structure can be erected in sections, each at a different stage of conipletion, continuously, and without the necessity of opening the whole excavation at-once,

' or openingjseparate blocks.

.theusual manner.

Having erected this caisson, I it. is now-possible to excavate from the interior,

The invention will be more fully understood in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which F1gure 1 1s a sectional vle-w' showing one section of a tunnel or foundation in course of construction, wherein the excavation is made down to the water level and the stationary caisson'and air locks are in lace ready for the interior excavation, and ig. 2 shows a plan view of. the several sections of a subway or tunnel in course of construction in different stages of completion.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, A represents the ground in which the tunnel or foundation is to be commenced or built, and B represents the water level therein either the normal water level or a temporarily lowered water, leveLproduced by pumping.

by sheet piling D and cross braces E. Within this excavation .C are driven sheet iles F cavatedunder the water leve B, and these piles F are braced by horizontalbraces G, in The top of thepiles F is leveled off and rovided with a Waling H, and secured to tli roof I,

provided wit passages J having the usual alr locks-and air pipes therein, -The roofl is made to be stationary and for this -purposemay be loaded with timbers or concrete K'to resist the u ward reaction of the e braced within the .pileaF by braces L. The piles F having air pressure and may een driven, the roof put on, and the space above the water level B air proofed in the now be excavated, under air 11? necessary, or

the water kept back by pumping. As the excavation oes onward, e sides of the-caisson will be raced, and when the excavation C represents an excavation made down to V the water level B, and shored up or braced e pliles and-thewaling is a.

usual manner, the interior of the caisson can tions of sheet pilingidriven downwardly and ne,and havin the joints as quic sand or mud, Ina be held back by 7 the airpressure. When t "e excavatlon has sions M are madeof somewhat shorter sec- '10s I "In doin this, the water and the ground,such r 2 cr sper proceeded in this manner as far downward as i is desired, it will be filled up, in the case of a course of excavation, similar to Fig. 1, has

temporary bulkheads at the ends closing it 01f from the excavated and unexcavated portion of the work. The section R has been entirely completed inside the piling, and temporarily closed at the front end by a block of concrete or timbers T behind the piling bulkhead; the section Q has been excavated (underair pressure, it necessary); and the section S is being started by driving the firs sheeting. sonry is sulliciently advanced, and the bulkhead between it and section 1 partially or wholly removed sothat'section I can be excavated under the same air pressure used in section Q, thus avoiding the necessity of lmilding air locks for each section. Section I having been excavated, the bulkhead between it and section S will be opened,-and the latter excavated.

it will oi course be understood that each section is roofed and weighted, whether provided with an air lock or not, and this process of working from one section into the adjoining one, while erecting the masonry in the excavated ones, can'be continued until the total air leakage in the sections under air becomes excessive, whereupon a bulkhead will be erected and one of the advanced sections provided with an airlock, and excavated In this manner, a tunnel can be rapidly and economically constructed, without the necessity of driving built-up caissons. In driving built-up caissons side by side, it is necessary to cut through from one to the other, and this cutting through isdangerous, because a large space is left entirely unprotected from'cave in while the masonry in the two sections is being connected. At this point, the ground may-shift and cause damage to surrounding property as well-as to completed portions of the tunnel itself, but such contingency-1s entircly prevented by the lllOtlHXlfOf this in- "ention. According to this method, only the transverse bulkheads separating the sec lions have to be removed, and a number of sections can be in course of construction at once.

it will be seen that by this method,'it is unnecessary to niovc the whole caisson as the work progresses, which is an expensive and objectionable process. in forcing builtup caissons as the excavation proceeds, and especially in soils containing boulders, the progress of the whole caisson may be stopped in the section Q, the ma is started as soon as the excavation by a boulder, whereas by this method of.

driving piles, only those piles which strike the boulder will bestopped and the others can be driven as far as is desirable. After the interior has been excavated to the rock, it can be broken up and removed, or anew set of piles can be driven onward from around the rock. In this manner, excavations can be made under water by means of caisson sections which are built in the direction of the excavationas it proceeds, the water and soil being held back by air pressure where necessary, and one excavated through an adjoining one in a more advanced stage of completion. i

It will also be understood that I do not restrict myself to any particular locationof the air locks, which are shown herein in the iixed roof, as these may be located in the side walls, or elsewhere ifdesired, without affectingor departing from the scope of thcinvention.

While I have illustrated and described herein a novel method of construction of a single section, such method is not claimed herein, but in an application filed by Inc September 6, 1907, Serial No. 391577, Patent S84,99(),issued April 151, 1908, of which application this present application is a division.

Having thus described my invention,'I declare that what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is,-

1. A method of building a submerged structure consisting in dividing the same into sections by piling and bulkheads, roofing the sections with a fixed roof, excavating one section under air pressure, and excavating the second roofed section through said first excavated section.

2. A method of building a submerged structure consisting in'dividing the same into sections by piling and bulkheads, roofing the sections with a iixcd roof, excavating one section under air pressure, erecting the permanent structure therein, and excavating the second roofed section through said first excavated section while the permanent strucsively, and excavating said adjoining sections through said iii-st section, whilcerecting the permanent structure tin-rein.

.in testimony whereof I aiiix my signature inpresenec of two witnesses.

v JAMES C. MEEM.

Witnesses:

A. K. SCHNEIDER, Gno. A. Bowman. 

